Python kills Venezuelan zookeeper

BBC ^ | 26 August 2008

[george76]

A three-metre (10-foot) python has killed a student zookeeper who let the snake out of its enclosure in Venezuela while working a night shift at the zoo.

Horrified employees at the Caracas zoo discovered the Burmese Python as it tried to swallow its victim's head.

"The young man underestimated the animal's instinct,"

[george76]

Python kills zoo keeper, tries to eat him

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21498,24242836-948,00.html?from=public_rss

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Whoops looking like that student won’t be repeating that course.

[Mr. Mojo]

"The young man underestimated the animal's instinct,"

29 isn't exactly young. Old enough to know better, at least.

[PreciousLiberty]

I suspect this snake was bigger than 3m (10 ft). One that size isn’t too much of a threat. Now, the 10m (30 ft) variety is a different story. ;-)

The only way I could see this happening with a snake that small is if he’d draped it around his neck while handling it. If it quickly constricted around his neck he might have been overcome before getting it off.

[Oatka]

The Australian papers says: A snake bite on his arm indicated the python had attacked Mr Arrieta before wrapping itself around him and crushing him to death.

What's with the "crushing" part? I thought they just kept constricting each time the prey breathed out until it couldn't breathe anymore.

[biff]

And these things are infesting the Everglades. As well, they mosey into the burbs of Miami and snack on pets. Wonder how long it will be before some child playing in the backyard becomes a innocent victim?

Time for open season??

[AngelesCrestHighway]

“Whoops looking like that student won’t be repeating that course.”......

Will he get an F posthumously?

[BubbaBasher]

New candidate for the Darwin Award.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

"The young man underestimated the animal's instinct,"
And the same thing goes with pit bull dogs.
How many stories have we heard were pets or animals being kept or owned by people attack their owners and when it comes out in the media, we get people saying that it's not the animals why it attacked, by the owners in how they animal was treated.
Some animals attack because it is the nature of the beast.

[Grammy]

I never could understand people who think “bigger is better” in terms of animals. My brother raised snakes when I was a girl, so I am not afraid of them and mildly interested in them. But when a snake, or a cat (cougar for instance) is big enough to kill you, they will eventually try!